Introduction

Competitive Overview

Most rankings tend to put poor Cammy pretty low on the charts in terms of overall fighting strength, occasionally even dead last. Is she really that bad? I'm not really good enough to hold an educated opinion, but I don't believe she's as weak as her reputation might have you believe.

Perhaps one of the reasons she gets a bad rap from some people is because her playstyle is a little unusual. Other characters have more straightforward strategies -- Ryu throws fireballs, FeiLong pressures with the Rekka Ken, Zangief wants to get in close so he can start doing command throws -- but Cammy's a lot more subtle. Combine this with the fact that one of her key special moves requires a high level of technical execution and you have a character with a high learning curve that gets written off a lot.

Curiously enough, opinions vary wildly even among top players about how good (or should I say bad?) Cammy really is, what her good and bad matchups are, and so forth. This leads me to believe that there's actually a lot of relatively unexplored territory when it comes to her. Here's to the search!

--Raisin (April 30, 2007)

Strengths and Weaknesses

At a glance, here are some of the main things Cammy has working for and against her:

Advantages

Excellent footspeed
Pretty good poke and footsie arsenal
Outstanding priority with jumping attacks using j.strong
Fast Hooligan Rolls can be hard for the opponent to react to in time
Good anti-air, reversal, and counter-move abilities with the Thrust Kick
Decent super move

Disadvantages

Lacks a projectile
Needs to be crafty; usually can't rely on any one particular strategy to win games
Requires careful handling to pressure by dealing chip damage with special moves
Jumps slowly, which can leave her vulnerable to anti-air counters
Has no grabs; ground throws have only average damage and range

--Raisin (April 30, 2007)

New and Old Versions Comparison

Old Cammy can be accessed with the input code UUDD. Some of the known differences are:

Old Cammy can't do a super move, like any other old character. While Cammy's super generally isn't considered the greatest, it's not exactly useless either and is nice to have around sometimes.
Old Cammy can't tech throws, like any other old character. This is a considerable loss.
Old Cammy can't perform the Hooligan Roll. This hurts her dynamism a lot.
Old Cammy's j.short doesn't have cross-up properties. This means Old Cammy doesn't have a true crossup attack at all, as far as I'm aware. She can still land on the opposite side with j.fierce, but it is not blocked as a crossup, and the positioning and timing required is tricky.
Old Cammy can't buffer special moves off a c.strong, c.forward, or s.close forward.
Old Cammy's Spin Knuckles can travel through projectiles no matter which version you use (jab, strong, or fierce). Only New Cammy's jab version can do that.
Old Cammy's Spin Knuckles don't move as far horizontally as their New Cammy counterparts. The jab version goes much shorter, the strong version goes somewhat shorter, and the fierce version goes a bit shorter.

It seems most players believe New Cammy to be clearly superior. You can assume I'm referring to that version of her in this text unless otherwise specified.

--Raisin (April 30, 2007)

Color Options

New Cammy Colors

New Cammy's color options in Super Turbo
To choose the "Hold" color, press and hold any button except Start for 2 seconds. To choose any other color, simply tap the desired button.

--Raisin (March 31, 2007)

Old Cammy Colors

Old Cammy's color options in Super Turbo
Old Cammy's input code is UUDD. Pressing Short simultaneously with Jab or Fierce will give you the alternate color.

--Raisin (March 31, 2007)

Moves List

Normal Moves

Here are some of the more notable normal moves that Cammy has available to her. These descriptions only scratch the surface of the game's depth and should by no means be considered a complete examination.

s.far jab can be mashed quickly to counter moves like Blanka's Ball or E.Honda's Headbutt.
s.far short just might have the least range of any move in the game, haha. If you're sneaky, though, you can actually use this to your advantage to miss with it on purpose in certain tick throw setups -- the illusion of an attack can scare them into blocking, while the miss makes sure they don't get pushed back and stay in throw range.
s.far forward has both speed and range and serves as one of Cammy's very best pokes.
s.far RH is a weird move with deceptively good range. It's unusual in that it has a lot of startup frames before it hits but not too many recovery frames. Most players don't use it very much, but it can see some important action in certain matchups.

s.close strong sometimes gets used in combos. Other times, people employ it as a meaty attack.
s.close fierce is a prime combo move or meaty attack that buffers nicely into various special moves.
s.close RH looks like it would counter high-flying opponents, but I personally have never had much success using it for that (or anything else, for that matter).

c.jab can be used as a tick setup or mashed to ward off Blanka's Ball attack.
c.strong may not look like much, but it has weird properties and actually beats a lot of ground moves that it looks like it shouldn't in the poking and footsie game. Sometimes it gets put in combos, since its timing is less strict than some other alternatives. Another idea is to buffer it into special moves, such as Thrust Kicking afterwards for a dangerous duo from close range. Old Cammy cannot buffer off of this move.
c.fierce can be surprisingly-good anti-air against certain medium-height jumpers like Ryu, Ken, and Guile, along with the low-jumping Boxer. Although the Thrust Kick is usually used for that job, sometimes it's easier and faster just to bash this move out instead to save a split-second, especially if your reflexes aren't the greatest. Try it and see what you think.
c.short tends to see action primarily as a tick setup.
c.forward is one of Cammy's best moves, period. Its good range and quick speed make it low-risk and a major part of Cammy's footsie game. You can combo this move with itself if you're close enough, but the timing is pretty tight. It also buffers well into special moves like Cannon Drills and Hooligan Rolls. Old Cammy cannot buffer off of this move.
c.RH is Cammy's foot sweep which does good damage and knocks down. Try to be careful not to miss with it, because it has a lot of recovery frames that leave her vulnerable for a long time after the kick.

j.jab is normally used as a tick-throw setup.
j.strong is a pretty amazing move with huge priority. It's considered to be one of Cammy's staple jumping attacks against grounded opponents, because the angle is favorable and it tends to fare relatively well against certain types of anti-air moves.
j.fierce is a solid punch that hits hard and lends itself well to big combos.
j.short has both good range and an unusual hitbox and does double duty serving as Cammy's cross-up air attack. It requires reasonable accuracy to perform correctly, and your margin for error will vary depending on what opponent you're facing -- some of them are wider than others. Note that Old Cammy's j.short is different and can't cross up opponents. This move can also be used in a different way, as a kind of aerial wall. For example, if you suspect Dictator might try to head stomp you, simply jump straight up and hit short and he should be repelled.
j.forward hits higher than most jumping attacks. You might consider it for air-to-air encounters. Although you probably wouldn't guess it from its appearance, it has slightly less range than her j.short or j.RH.
j.RH is powerful and has good horizontal range. For example, you might use it to clip Ryu when you jump over his fireball from longe range.

--Raisin (April 30, 2007)

Throws

→ or ← + Strong or Fierce: Back Drop. Cammy grabs the opponent by the waist and slams them backwards.
→ or ← + Forward or Roundhouse: Leg Flip, in which Cammy uses her legs to hurl the opponent down.

Both throws do about 22% damage, which is quite average and nothing special. They also have the same range, which happens to also be quite average. There's no significant difference between the Back Drop and the Leg Flip or any reason to favor one over the other that I'm aware of.

(in air) ↗ or → or ↘ or ↙ or ← or ↖ + Strong or Fierce: Air Toss, where Cammy quickly throws her opponent to the ground.
(in air) ↗ or → or ↘ or ↙ or ← or ↖ + Forward or Roundhouse: Aerial Leg Flip, which looks just like its grounded version.

Again, both air throws have the same range, which means Cammy will have to be pretty close to the opponent. So what's the differences between the two? Well, for one thing, the Air Toss does a whopping 29% damage. However, it must be performed during a certain phase of Cammy's jump, anywhere between halfway up her ascendance to the peak of her jump, or if you prefer to think of it a different way, only around the second quarter of her jump duration. The Aerial Leg Flip does a lesser 23.5% damage, but its window of opportunity is much larger and can be executed anytime Cammy is airborne unless she just left the ground or is just about to land, or in other words, around the middle 80% of her jump.

--Raisin (April 1, 2007)
--Thanks to T.Akiba for some information

Special Moves

←↙→ + P: Spin Knuckle, where Cammy takes a quick hop-step and then punches outwards with the back of her hand. The jab version travels the shortest and the fierce the farthest. It will hit twice if you're close enough.

A lot of players almost never use this move, and it requires sensitive handling due to its slowness and vulnerability during early stages. One idea for its employment is as a meaty attack, especially against characters or players who can't reverse well. Note that the jab version of New Cammy's Spin Knuckle can travel through projectiles during the part where Cammy is spinning. The same is true for Old Cammy's jab, strong, and fierce versions.

Since this move has an unusual and unique input motion, and some people try to perform this move as a simple half-circle with punch. You might find this method slightly imprecise and inconsistent.

↓↘→ + K: Cannon Drill, also known as just the Drill or the Spiral Arrow. Cammy shoots forward as a human missile in a feet-first attack. Again, the short version travels the shortest and the roundhouse the farthest. The roundhouse Drill can also hit twice if performed at close range.

The Cannon Drill has some very nice features: it's fast, does good damage, knocks down, and has high priority. Unfortunately, it also has drawbacks as well, namely the fact that it can still get stuffed by certain opponent moves and leaves Cammy vulnerable for a considerable amount of time afterwards. To help alleviate this danger, you can try to use it at precise distances so that just the end of the hitting frames strike the opponent and Cammy can hopefully recover in time to deal with any counterattacks. This is one of Cammy's few, reliable ways of dealing chip damage relatively safely.

→↓↘ + K: Thrust Kick, also known as the Cannon Spike or misheard as the Front Kick. More info coming soon.

↙↓↘→↗ + P: Hooligan Roll..., also known as simply the Roll or the Cannonball Jump, is a very dynamic move. Cammy grabs her knees and shoots herself forward (jab the shortest, fierce the longest) into the air. You can leap right over projectiles if done correctly. Through just before the halfway point of this jump, no inputs will be registered, but after she's just about reached the peak, Cammy has several continuations:

... ↗ or → or ↘ or ↙ or ← or ↖ + K: ...into Hooligan Throw is the most common decision. If Cammy is close to the opponent and still relatively early in her roll, she'll do a leg flip throw. If she's towards the end of her roll, she performs a tumbling throw instead. Neither of these throws can be teched (or softened), and since this can all happen very fast, simply the threat of this can make opponents nervous.

The grace period of your opponent being immune to throws for a short time after getting up from a knockdown also applies to the Hooligan Throw; it won't work in such a situation. Also, remember that Cammy can't input commands during the opening part of the Roll, so you'll have to be at the peak of your jump or later to throw the opponent.

... (do nothing): ...into Hooligan Slide, info coming soon.

... (during second half of roll) K: ...into Hooligan Cancel, info coming soon.

There are all sorts of things the opponent can do to prevent the roll. More info coming soon.

--Raisin (April 8, 2007)

Super Move

↓↘→↓↘ + K: Spin Drive Smasher, the proper name of the technique, is almost always referred to instead as simply Cammy's super. It makes her shoot forward with a Cannon Drill followed immediately by a Thrust Kick, as the input motion reflects. (Some people prefer to roll all the way to forward at the end in a double-quarter-circle motion, which also works.)

The super can hit up to 5 times if you're close enough for up to around 50% damage, and it can juggle airborne opponents for up to 3 hits. It doesn't matter which kick button you press, since all versions are the same. You can buffer this off a normal attack just like a special move. The best thing about it is that she's invulnerable during the first half's drilling motion, so you can ignore threats and have 100% priority over anything that isn't itself invulnerable.

I consider Cammy's super moderately good in general. It has a number of practical uses, such as for countering projectile barrages; done right, you can fly right through them and hit your exposed opponent. It can also devastate dizzied opponents or (with precise timing) be used as a ground-to-ground trump card, beating any normal move your opponent tries. It makes excellent anti-air either by juggling or hitting right as the opponent lands from a jump and is unable to block. Finally, you can use it for something as simple as chipping your opponent to knockout when they're very low on health. All that said, a lot of characters have counters to her blocked super, and its ability to be punished keeps it from being a simple fire-and-forget weapon, so you'll have to exercise a degree of caution when using it.

--Raisin (May 2, 2007)

Match-Up Strategies

Vs. Blanka

(I am not a great player, so please don't take what I'm about to say too seriously. These are only my ideas at the moment that might not be very good or accurate. Trust your own discretion and experiences! --Raisin)

Overview: I personally feel this is a relatively even battle with good chances for both players. Usually it features a slugfest from medium-short distance that can tilt either way, with both sides ready to jump at the opportunity to fight at very close range as long as it's on their own terms.

Generally, Blanka will spend the majority of the match trying to fight you tooth and nail with his good normal moves, dangerous grab (the bite), and occasional dirty trick. His favorite scenario is when he's able to get inside with the initiative and start doing jumping crossup attacks. Sound the air raid siren if that happens, because it is bad, bad news.

Cammy hopes to be able to meet Blanka every step of the way with a carefully-orchestrated offense of pokes, special moves, and a dash of bravado. I feel her best strategy is to play for a knockdown of some sort and then turn up the heat with mind games based off of meaty attacks.

Cammy's meaty attacks: The reason I feel meaty attacks are strong against most Blankas is because I don't know of any easy responses for him. Supposing you're doing something like standing on top of him with s.close strong, a reversal Ball will only trade hits, and reversal Electricity just gets him hit due to its startup frames. It's also harder for him to reversal grab because he can only do it with 1 button, making it impossible for him to piano (multi-tap) the input. Even reversal hopback leaves you safe for the moment. Reversal super leads to a weird situation; it hits you once on the bobbling part but leaves you safe to block the other hits, after which you can sweep him for free. You take about 25% damage, but he gets roughly 16% damage and a knockdown in return. Meaty j.strong might be even an better option after you get a knockdown, since it cuts out his options of reversal Ball (loses) and reversal grab (doesn't work, you're airborne) out completely, leaving you with only his super to worry about.

Blanka's aerial assault: Your worst-case scenario is when Blanka gets in close and crosses you up with his j.short, whose large and unusually-placed hitbox makes his air attacks very dangerous. He can follow it up with all sorts of nasty things like biting, big combos, confusing hit strings like c.forward xx crossup hop, another crossup jumpkick, or all of the above. Unfortunately, there's no easy way for Cammy to escape such a situation that I know of besides guessing his next move(s) correctly or reacting extremely quickly and accurately, such as counter-throwing Blanka when he tries to bite or correctly blocking a hit string to get some breathing room distance. If you have your super and lightning reflexes, you can consider using it as he's jumping over your head just as a "get out of jail free" card. It'll miss by a mile, but the point is that as long as you don't bump into a corner, you should go shooting across the screen to safety.

Slugging it out: Everyone has their own way of handling the medium-close-range brawl, but here are some of the things that come to my mind. Cammy's c.strong seems surprisingly reliable here, and I don't recommend s.far forward poking against Blanka, because if he's crouching, he's so short that it misses over his head entirely and leaves you wide open to a simple crouching attack. If he starts getting too defensive, the Hooligan Roll can punish his turtling; on the other hand, if he's thrashing around aggressively, you can go for the ground-to-ground Thrust Kick if you're feeling cheeky. If you want a little breathing room, jumping straight up with Short is fairly safe and hard for him to punish on reaction.

Special move uses and counters: The Drill usually trades hits with the Ball, although occasionally you'll win cleanly. His s.fierce done early enough will actually beat the Drill, but as that requires superhuman reflexes, I don't consider it very practical, and I don't know of any easy way for Blanka to consistently stuff the Drill. You can safely Drill chip Blanka from the right ranges, which due to his wide hitbox is slightly farther away than most characters. Be careful not to mess up, as his c.forward has both the speed and range to punish you if you try it from too close. If he has charge, he can counter a blocked Thrust Kick with a Fierce Ball to hit you on your recoil and knock you down. In the same way, he can punish your blocked super, and the timing for him in that case probably going to be easier due to the fact that the Thrust Kick at the end of the super normally hits very deeply.

Anti-air: The Thrust Kick is very reliable anti-air against Blanka and will beat just about every non-crossup air attack he can throw at you. The main problem is reacting in time to his very fast jump. On the other side, Blanka's j.straight fierce (the "slap," "handshake," etc.) performed near the top of his jump is a good air-to-air weapon, but takes such fast reaction that he usually has to anticipate your jump to make it work. Assuming a normal jump-in angle, the Vertical Ball will lose to your j.strong, occasionally lose to your j.jab, beat your j.forward, sometimes beat your j.short, and tends to trade the rest of the time. The thing is that it can hit you unexpectedly early in your jump when you haven't attacked yet, so it doesn't matter if you were planning on doing a j.strong if you didn't actually have it out in time. Speaking of Cammy's j.strong, I believe it is her best jumping attack to use in general in this matchup, because there's not much Blanka can normally do about it if you catch him off-guard with it -- it's not like there's some really late ground-to-air counter move that he can do that I'm aware of. The exception is Blanka's rather underused super, whose invulnerable, bobbling start actually makes it great anti-air. It's not going to connect with all of its hits or anything, but damage is damage.

Fightin' dirty: There are a bunch of dirty tricks Blanka is known for, and they come in all flavors. They can be simple, like his hop forward into bite when he thinks you're blocking or missing a Jab Ball into bite at the right range. They can be silly, like his missing a Jab Ball into a c.RH which can be surprisingly effective for some weird reason. Or they can be truly chaotic, like knockdown into missed crossup Strong Ball into s.close strong into crossup hop into bite. Practice and familiarity will help you respond to these correctly, but depending on your opponent's skill level and play style, it can be tough.

Bounce the ball: Blanka's Ball is potentially very dangerous, because it hits so fast that it can be hard to react to, and it can help swing the ground game towards his favor, since it beats a lot of moves like Cammy's footsie attacks or can just smack you in the face when you're trying to advance. Given the opportunity, most Blanka players will use the Ball very often if they think they can get away with it. The good news is that Cammy can counter the Ball after its impact with a RH Cannon Drill to hit him on his rebound, but the timing is pretty tight. Assuming a normal Fierce Ball hit, Cammy has only a handful of frames in which to input her riposte with success -- too early and nothing comes out, too late and he'll recover in time to safely block and punish you. If you don't trust your timing enough, you can also consider mashing s.far jab or c.jab to hit the Ball out of the air on approach, but you have to be careful not to do those at the wrong time or you'll outsmart yourself and leave yourself open to a simple attack like his c.RH. So the Ball isn't necessarily the easiest thing to handle, but just try your best to keep it under control and stop it from pressuring you.

Z-z-zap: As Cammy doesn't have a projectile, Blanka may more apt to try to fry you with the Electricity once in a while. This is especially annoying since it not only knocks you down but makes you go through the slow, zapping animation, giving Blanka a lot of time to set up his next assault. Remember that Blanka needs time to set up the Electricity, both for physically mashing the button(s) and because it does have a few startup frames when it isn't hitting yet. He'll usually try to hide its appearance by mashing when it can't be seen, such as when he's knocked down or airborne, during a move, or before a round's start. The easiest way to counter the Electricity is with the tip of a c.forward, c.RH, or Cannon Drill, or if you can react in time at closer range, you have the Thrust Kick (provided you don't walk into him during the forward part of the input motion, haha). We can also see the magical properties of Cammy's j.strong at work here, as it cleanly and safely cuts right through it as long as you didn't jump in too deeply. All of her other, non-meaty jumping attacks will get you juiced.

Crossup fun: Turnabout is fair play, and since Blanka's hitbox is quite wide, you may be able to work some crossup magic of your own. You can even do combos like j.short, s.close fierce xx Thrust Kick without fear of Ball reprisal, since he's going to lose his horizontal charge when you change sides. Just be aware that if you're trying to do a crossup on a knocked-down Blanka and it isn't meaty, his wakeup Electricity can turn the tables, and it's likely you who will be eating a crossup afterwards! Blanka's hitbox gets thinner when he's dizzy, so don't bother trying to cross him up in such a situation, but this is a moot point since he cannot block anyway. Ha!

Blanka's not-so-super: If Blanka does his super and you have your super stored, you can blow him away by doing your super on reaction, although overlapping invincibility periods and tricky timing can make this difficult, so you may want to simply block first and then super him into oblivion. Barring that, I think the simplest counter, assuming his super is hitting normally (shallowly), is to block it standing up for less blockstun time and then take your free knockdown with c.RH, although there are a lot of things that also work, including c.forward (buffering into RH Drill doesn't combo here), s.far fierce (doesn't buffer here), or even the Thrust Kick (with very good timing). If he gets sloppy doing his super from long range and you manage to safely jump backwards over it, he's vulnerable at the end, and you can actually hit him really deeply with a j.strong combo. In any case, many Blankas will only use the super conservatively, such as going for a meaty chip knockout when you're knocked down and almost out of health.

The chimp's no wimp, so good luck!
--Raisin (May 1, 2007)